Classified: France ’44 is inspired by the true story of Allied special forces dropped behind enemy lines in World War II.
After a teaser marketing campaign in which Team17 announced a new game but redacted all information about it, we now have a name and a trailer. Classified: France ’44 will launch later this year, and will be a World War II turn-based tactics game in which you control squads of Allied soldiers behind enemy lines.
It’s inspired by the real-life Operation Jedburgh, in which small groups of soldiers were dropped by parachute into occupied France in the run up to D-Day in June 1944. Their objective was to sabotage German operations and conduct guerrilla warfare, as well as make contact with and lead French resistance fighters.
The project’s being developed by Absolutely Games, a UK studio formed in 2019 by industry veterans from studios such as Kuju Entertainment, a team that worked on such games as Microsoft Train Simulator, Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior and Dancing with the Stars.
“Myself and the team are huge fans of tactical turn-based games and strategy games,” says CEO James Brooksby, “and so for Classified: France ’44 we not only wanted to evolve the genre and be ambitious in the game we have created, but also, we wanted to depict the largely untold story of heroism behind enemy lines in Northern France before D-Day.”
The new game is aiming to put a strong focus on stealth, and according to the press release, will feature “an enhanced overwatch ability that provides further tactical options, and an engaging morale-based combat and suppression system that means every shot matters.”
Classified: France ’44 is due out on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S at some point later this year. You can wishlist it on Steam here.
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